Just when it was thought Trump had the Korean situation figured out or under control there was a new development.
The President had said the day prior that the meeting might not happen. Korean officials said it was up to the U.S. to decide if they wanted to meet or not.
Vice President Mike Pence received a tongue lashing for his statement about the North Koreans reaching out to meet.
The Koreans said it was quite the opposite, it was the U.S. who wanted to meet and they obliged.
Pence was called a “political dummy” by a North Korean official who found Pence’s remark offensive.
The Koreans also threatened once again to back out of talks at the planned Singapore summit.
Political Dummy
Pence spoke to Fox News telling the host that they agreed to a meeting with North Korea after they reached out.
“But when Kim Jong Un through the South Koreans reached out and said he would suspend his nuclear testing, suspend his ballistic testing, and be willing to achieve complete denuclearization through talks in exchange for a meeting with President Trump, this President readily said yes,” Pence said.
“As the President made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn’t make a deal, “he added.
North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister, Choe Sun Hui responded to the claim by Pence calling him a political dummy.
“We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them,” she said.
North Korea Adamant
“As a person involved in the U.S. affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice-president,” Choe said.
It was well-known that Kim Jong-un wasn’t one to trifle with; however that didn’t seem to bother Trump.
Trump said that Kim wasn’t living up to the requirements needed for the meeting to take place.
“If he is Vice-President of ‘single superpower’ as is in name, it will be proper for him to know even a little bit about the current state of global affairs and to sense to a certain degree the trends in dialogue and the climate of détente,” Choe said.
North Korea made it clear that they won’t be begging the U.S. to meet with them, the choice was theirs.
“We will neither beg the U.S. for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,” she said. “Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision. . . of the U.S.”